KVSH Racing driver Sebastien Bourdais had to come from the back of the field twice, but managed to salvage an 11th place finish today in the GoPro Grand Prix of Sonoma on the scenic Sonoma Raceway in Sonoma, California.

Bourdais started seventh, however on the opening lap, as the cars charged up the hill into turn two, a multi-car incident sent Bourdais into the dirt, damaging and eventually stalling his No. 11 Team HYDROXYCUT - KVSH Racing Chevrolet/Dallara/Firestone machine. After getting restarted the team altered their race strategy and the 35-year-old Frenchman began the long road back. He was running in 15th and was on a strategy that would have put him close to, if not in, the top-10, when a second incident occurred sending him to the back of the field for a second time. Despite additional damage to his car, Bourdais continued the fight and ended the 85-lap contest with a three-car drag race to the finish line.

"It was a pretty difficult day for the Hydroxycut - KVSH Racing team," Bourdais said. "The start of the race was messy. Everybody went for it and braked real late. Cars got shuffled around and were going in every direction. I ended up sideways, hit (Ryan) Briscoe and lost the engine. I got re-fired, but the car was really banged up and difficult to drive. We still had good pace and the team came up with a really good strategy."

Bourdais continued saying, "Things were looking pretty good, we were moving up. Then on one of the restarts, I got a run on the inside of my teammate (Sebastian Saavedra) and then Helio (Castroneves) came on the inside of me to make it three wide. When Sebastian turned in, there was enough room for me, but not for both me and Helio. I was in the middle and got sandwiched. At that point all the damage on the car started to pile up, but I was still running okay...as weird as that sounds. However, I was back to last again, which is a shame, because we were on a good strategy. We moved up when some guys pitted for fuel, then we picked up a couple of places at the end when some guys ran out of fuel, but ultimately 11th was all we could salvage."

Bourdais made his fourth start on the challenging 2.385-mile, 12-turn Sonoma Raceway permanent road course. He has finished in the top-10 twice with a best showing of sixth in 2011 (10th in 2013).

Bourdais earned 19 points today and is now eighth in the championship standings with 437 points. He has a mathematical chance of tying for third since next weekend's 2014 Verizon IndyCar Series season finale at Auto Club Raceway in Fontana, California is worth double points (total of 108). Realistically, Bourdais is just six points out of seventh and as many as 97 out of fourth. Tony Kanaan owns the team record for highest season ending finish placing fifth in 2011 followed by KV Racing Technology team co-owner and KVSH Racing partner Jimmy Vasser, who finished sixth in 2006.

Next up for KVSH Racing is the MAVTV 500, August 29-30. The race will be broadcast live on NBC Sports Network beginning at 9:00 p.m. (ET) on Saturday, August 30. It can also be heard live on IMS Radio Network affiliates, XM Channel 209, Sirius Channel 213 IndyCar.com, IndyCarRadio.com or via the Verizon IndyCar14 app.

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